Upon his untimely death, H.P Lovecraft, the early twentieth century master of weird fiction , left behind descriptions of 221 unwritten stories Some were only a few ambiguous words long, others were complete plot outlines, and all of them died with their author Now, 70 years later, writers from all over the country have come together to bring these untold stories to liUpon his untimely death, H.P Lovecraft, the early twentieth century master of weird fiction , left behind descriptions of 221 unwritten stories Some were only a few ambiguous words long, others were complete plot outlines, and all of them died with their author Now, 70 years later, writers from all over the country have come together to bring these untold stories to life The only requirement for the writers to create a piece that fulfilled every part of Lovecraft s original vision The results are as varied as the artists behind them Inside this book waits horror, science fiction, comedy, memoir, experimental text art, and one extremely short novel Some of these stories will take away your worries Others will take away your sleep And a few will take you to another world, a world where weird fiction still lives, and the way home may prove difficult to find indeed.

Title: A Commonplace Book of the Weird: The Untold Stories of H.P. Lovecraft

The idea behind this anthology was fun - the authors who agreed to the project were given a randomized prompt from a list of unused (supposedly) Lovecraft story ideas. And looking at the list at the back of the book, it seems likely that the list was genuine, although a couple of them I recognized as actually used Lovecraft ideas - The Cats of Ulthar (which, granted, was never completed), Pickman's Model, and The Tomb, off the top of my head.**Went back and looked up the descriptions that had sp [...]

As most people will tell you: this collection is hit-and-miss. But the "hits" are memorable enough for me to call this a good collection of stories.Joseph Fink's novella "Relative Damnation" is the clear standout in my opinion, which should not be a surprise, given the writing talent he's already demonstrated in the Night Vale podcasts (and also the fact that he had more space to develop a story than any of the other writers). But "Levittown (36. Disintegration)" by Mark Farr stands out as the m [...]

An interesting collection of tales based on a list of story ideas written by HP Lovecraft over several years. Only a handful are fleshed out and several were used by Lovecraft himself (the list is at the back of this book, each numbered and giving a few words up to several paragraphs of idea/plot).These definitely had the lovecraft taint, though some include subject matter never found in his works in life. I would recommend this for any fan of Lovecraftian literature.It certainly whets my appeti [...]

I wanted to love this book. I'm already a devoted listener of "Welcome to Night Vale" and this book is promoted at the end of every episode. The premise is that each person received an unused idea from HP Lovecraft (he left a list) and wrote a story based on it. Unfortunately, the majority of the stories are surrealistic, overly-styled, and reminded me of a college literary magazine.There are a couple of scary gems in the dross, including Fink's own story, which is the last in the collection, bu [...]

"After a while, I'd throw it out, whatever it was, because it's importance - why I kept it around, why I tried to preserve it - was lost to me."This book was between 3.5 and 4 stars for me. The premise is fascinating - taking H.P. Lovecraft prompts and writing stories based on however the writer interprets it. Some stories are better than others and there's a wide range of prompts and styles. I think my biggest issue is that it could be longer, or some of the stories could be. But overall it's a [...]

This is not a perfect book, even as such collections go. The four star rating is for a few reasons, mostly because I think the best stories in it deserve it. I also believe that most people that enjoy weird fiction will come away with at least a few gems, though what those gems are will vary and it may require some effort to get through the rest. Finally, while I did not give much weight to this, the concept is ambitious, and the fact that the ideas supposedly listed by Lovecraft (and regardless [...]

Bookriot Read Harder Challenge 2015: Task 4, published by an indie pressWhy I chose this book: been in the TBR pile ages, plus I LOVE Welcome To Night Vale and the Mythos, so it's a great way to support Commonplace Books & WNTV since I already have a t-shirt.On Reading: Well. I do struggle with short stories in general, they are not my favourite style. So I knew I would have some issues from the outset. There are some first-class tales in here - Joseph Fink's is particularly good - but tbh t [...]

It is sad that so few of these stories are worth reading, and that because of the chaff I cannot in good conscious recommend the collection just to get to the gems. What I will say is that the final entry, a short novel by Joseph Fink, is very good indeed and if there is some other way to read it I would definitely recommend doing so.

Some are much (much) better than others but the ones that are good are really good. Unfortunately, the best one is the first one so it really raises the bar. But that's my preference, your mileage may vary.

as with all short story collections, the stories vary in quality, but here the quality is better than most. the contributors clearly put a lot of effort into their offerings, and always in the spirit of the Weird, slyly tipping their hats to Lovecraft, which I loved.

Leave a Comment

Name*

Email*

Your Comment*

A Commonplace Book of the Weird: The Untold Stories of H.P. Lovecraft By Joseph Fink Marcus Goodyear Will Hartwell Christopher Scheer Jonathan Herzog Kyle Levenick Hannah Lott-Schwartz Justin MarquisUpon his untimely death, H.P Lovecraft, the early twentieth century master of weird fiction , left behind descriptions of 221 unwritten stories Some were only a few ambiguous words long, others were complete plot outlines, and all of them died with their author Now, 70 years later, writers from all over the country have come together to bring these untold stories to liUpon his untimely death, H.P Lovecraft, the early twentieth century master of weird fiction , left behind descriptions of 221 unwritten stories Some were only a few ambiguous words long, others were complete plot outlines, and all of them died with their author Now, 70 years later, writers from all over the country have come together to bring these untold stories to life The only requirement for the writers to create a piece that fulfilled every part of Lovecraft s original vision The results are as varied as the artists behind them Inside this book waits horror, science fiction, comedy, memoir, experimental text art, and one extremely short novel Some of these stories will take away your worries Others will take away your sleep And a few will take you to another world, a world where weird fiction still lives, and the way home may prove difficult to find indeed.